Plant a Kitchen Garden

In the beginning of spring it’s easy to catch the gardening bug. You may have never thought about growing some of your own food before. There’s no time like right now to make a plan.

First off decide just how small you want your garden to be. Take into consideration if you have a patch of sunny yard or simply a patio or balcony to plant on. Even if you only have a sunny windowsill, you can still plant something. With the urban gardening movement taking off, you will find tons of diy small garden projects around the web. This year I’ll be trying my hand at some vertical wall gardens and adding a raised bed of veggies in my front yard.

If you have a patch of yard, but have bad soil, think of building a raised bed. It gives you a contained area to plant in that you create the perfect soil in. You can even grow more in your small bed if you add in a bean pole and trellis for cucumbers and other vining veggies. Pick the veggies that you like to eat and make sure to get your family to help you plant and pick. You’ll be surprised at how much more fresh food gets added into everyone’s diet.

Make sure not to over crowd your planting space, but at the same time, utilize your space as much as possible. You’ll have to do a little research on the varieties you are planting so you’ll know if you can squeeze in a few lettuce plants under the tomato plant. Gardenweb.com is a great place to get info. Tons of experienced gardeners are on the Gardenweb forum and will answer the questions that you post.

Don’t discount what you can plant in containers either. You can have salad, herbs, and Swiss chard. You can also get larger containers and plant an heirloom tomato plant, just make sure you use a tomato support that can support 7 feet of tomatoes. Also, check out some of the seeds at Renee’s Garden. She has a ton of specialty seeds just for a veggie container garden. You can even buy a collection that contains Super Bush Tomato, Garden Babies Lettuce, Pot of Gold Chard, Bush Slicer Cucumber, and Pizza My Heart Pepper.

My favorite way to serve up my first veggie harvest is outside. I bring out a tablecloth, my best dinnerware and Oneida flatware dress up the table along with any fresh flowers I can find. Of course, if you don’t have a backyard you can still dress up your dining room with flowers and even put out a few pots of your herbs.